If there's a Phil Ivey of daily fantasy baseball, his name is Peter Jennings. So it wasn't a surprise to anyone that the man they call "CSURAM88" took down the biggest tournament in the history of the industry on Tuesday night.
Jennings, who happens to be a member of the DraftKings Pro Team, bested a field of 50 entries to claim the $1,000,000 top prize at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. The live final included some of the brightest minds in fantasy sports, but Jennings dominated the night behind the Boston Red Sox lineup and solid pitching from starters Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto.
Jennings was near the top of the leaderboard right from the get-go thanks to a first-inning home run from Dustin Pedroia, and he later added homers from Mike Napoli, Allen Craig and Jose Bautista to take a sizable lead into the home stretch. The celebrations began even before the final pitch of the night was thrown.
Finishing second behind Jennings was another daily fantasy superstar by the name of Jay "DirtyGirl15" Raynor. Both Jennings and Raynor secured three entries into this championship event and used the extra ammunition to their advantage. One of only two Canadians in the field and the former roommate of poker pro Mike "Timex" McDonald, Raynor collected $350,000 for his efforts.
Rounding out the top five and pocketing six-figure scores were "markgenorex," Chris "gcnmoo" Moore and Ray "rayofhope" Coburn. Here's a look at the top 10 results along with Jennings' winning lineup:
That does it for our coverage of the DraftKings Fantasy Baseball Championship. Be sure to check out all of our photos and videos from a fanstic week at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort! For more coverage of the evening's festivities check out DKTV.
A total of 37 players will compete for the $1 million top prize in this evening's Fantasy Baseball Championship at DraftKings. Nine of those players will have multiple entries, giving them two or even three chances to claim the biggest prize ever awarded in fantasy baseball.
The field is made up of the sharpest minds in daily fantasy sports, including Peter "CSURAM88" Jennings, Drew "dinkpiece" Dinkmeyer, Peter "DraftCheat" Christensen, Jay "DirtyGirl15" Raynor and Al "Al_Smizzle" Zeidenfeld. There will also be a handful of poker pros competing for the title as Jonathan Tamayo, Barry Hutter and Chris Moore all won seats during the qualifying period.
We will be posting several player profiles and interviews as the day progresses. For now, here's a complete look at the field, beginning with the multi-entry players.
The big day has arrived. After hosting three days of fun at the beautiful Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, DraftKings is putting on the biggest fantasy baseball event in the history of the daily fantasy sports industry. One fantasy baseball player will take home $1 million after the full slate of Major League Baseball games is completed tonight.
The DraftKings Fantasy Baseball Championship will take place at the Aura Nightclub in Atlantis beginning at 7:05 p.m. ET. Over past few months, DraftKings hosted 50 qualifiers for a seat into this event, with each package worth $54,500. The event ticket itself is worth $50,000, meaning a total of $2.5 million will be awarded here in Paradise Island.
The preparation for this evening's event has already begun. Each participant will select a team of 10 MLB players from today's games using a fixed salary cap of $50,000 set by DraftKings. The selection process involves a wide range of variables, including batter-versus-pitcher matchups, recent player performance, park dimensions, and even weather. Many of the same players will be selected, but it is highly unlikely that we'll see any duplicate lineups tonight.
Once the lineups are set and the games begin, points are assigned to individual statistics (i.e. HR=10, RBI=3, RUN=2, etc.) and the winner is determined by which team accrues the most points with their 10-player roster.
Everyone will go home with at least $7,500 tonight, but of course the biggest check — worth $1 million — will be handed to the winner. PokerNews will be at Aura for complete coverage of the event, so keep your browsers locked here all evening!